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Out in the wasteland, the game of choice is Caravan. Created by caravan guards using whatever cards they could find lying around, this is a one-on-one card game played with a cobbled together deck of loose playing cards. Caravan is not played in casinos, but is very popular among caravan guards and other frequent travelers on the Long 15. Because Caravan allows players to build decks from any card they can find, crafty caravan guards often come up with devious decks and strategies. Caravan is played for standard money of any and all kinds: caps, NCR dollars, or legion coins. Because the players are often poor, the stakes tend to be low.

A free 54 card starter deck and game instructions can be received from Ringo in Goodsprings. This deck comprises 53 of the 54 cards from the The Tops' set (There are 2 Kings of Diamonds, the King of Clubs is missing). Additional cards can be obtained from various merchants and corpses across the Mojave wasteland, or by beating Festus at Lucky Horseshoes, or alternatively you may find cards in the Sierra Madre should you have Dead Money installed.

At the outset of the game, the opponent will place a bid. The player can then either match or raise. Non-player characters will not match every bid, only raising to about 50% of their initial bid. The player can bid any amount they want, limited only by their opponent's bid and the amount of money they have.

Caravan decks are composed of at least 30 cards from one or more traditional playing card sets. The deck may have any number of cards of any type, although it cannot have duplicate cards from the same set. For example, a King of Spades with The Tops on the reverse and a King of Spades with Gomorrah on the reverse is acceptable, but more than one King of Spades from The Tops deck is not. Any duplicate cards purchased by the player are automatically filtered out of the selection process.

Prior to beginning the game, the player is presented with the "deck creation interface". This interface consists of two rows of cards, both representing every card in the deck. The visible cards in the top row represent the playable deck, while the bottom row are the unused cards.

A deck is created by moving cards from the bottom row to the top row using the Add button. Cards can also be removed using the Remove button. The "Randomize Deck" button will randomly select cards, creating a new caravan deck each time from all the available cards in your total card pool. Once the player is finished creating their deck, they can move on to the game. The finished deck will be saved and cannot be edited until the next time Caravan is played.

Caravan is played with two players building three opposing caravans (or "bids") of numbered cards. The goal is to outbid the opponent in all of the three caravans by keeping the number of points on each above 20 and below 27 (21-26) while preventing the opponent from doing the same.

The game begins with each player taking eight cards from their deck and placing either one numerical card or Ace on each of their caravans. A player may not discard during this initial round. (This is currently bugged, see Bugs.) Once both players have started their three bids, each player may do one of the following on their turn:

Play one card and draw a new card from their deck into their hand.

Discard one card from their hand and draw a new card from their deck.

Disband one of their three caravans by removing all cards from that caravan.

After the initial card is played, the following card determines the direction of the caravan, either ascending or descending numerically. All subsequent cards must continue that numerical direction and/or match the suit of the previous card. Playing a same-suit card will change the direction of the caravan, if applicable. Cards of the same numerical value cannot be played in sequence, regardless of suit. Face cards and Jokers can be attached to an Ace or numeric card in a caravan (including your opponents') and affect them in various ways. A total of three cards may be attached to any given regular card, after which the only way to remove that card is through the use of a Jack or discarding the entire caravan.

Removes that card from the table, along with any face cards (Jokers, Kings or Queens) attached to it.

Joker

Ace, 2-10

Effects change based on whether the Joker is played against an Ace or a number card:

When played against Ace: Jokers played on Aces remove all other non-face cards of the Ace's suit from the table. A Joker played on an Ace of Spades, for example, removes the 2 through the 10 of Spades. This has no effect on cards whose suit has been changed by a Queen, nor on any cards played after the Joker.

When played against number card (2-10): Jokers played on number cards remove all other cards of this value from the table. For example, a Joker played on a 4 of Hearts removes all 4s (other than the card the Joker is played upon) from the table. This only affects cards played before the Joker.

Multiple Jokers may be played on the same card.

King

Ace, 2-10

Doubles the value of the number card it's played on. For example, a King played on a 4 adds 4 to that caravan. Multiple Kings may be played on the same card for multiplicative effects; thus, a second King will re-double the value resulting from the first King, so 4 x 2 = 8 then 8 x 2 = 16.

Queen

Ace, 2-10

Changes the suit of the card it's played on and reverses the direction of the caravan if played on the lead card. For example, playing a Queen of Hearts on the lead card in a 5, 7, 9 caravan will change the 9 to Hearts and make the direction descending. Multiple Queens may be played on the same card.

A player's caravan is considered sold when the value of its cards is over 20 and under 27. The opponent may still outbid by increasing the value of their opposing pile while staying within the 21-26 range. The game ends when each of the competing caravans is sold to either the opponent or the player, with the victor providing a better bid for at least two of the caravans.

In the event of a tie between any two matched caravans, the game continues until one side has a better bid. The player with two or more sales on their side at the end of the game wins the pot. If either player runs out of cards to discard before a winning condition is met, the player will not be able to discard and will be declared the loser regardless of how many winning caravans they have.

It is possible to win if outbidding the other player is not possible. When running out of opportunities to win, continuously discard empty caravan piles instead of discarding the individual cards in your hand. If placing face cards can cause the opponent to NOT "sell their caravans" while the player keeps at least 1 card in their hand, then they should be able to win because the opponent does not know how to select an empty caravan slot and "discard" it in order to stall the victory. The idea is that the player's hand would be predominantly face cards towards the realization of their inability to win and they would use this strategy to win. Face cards are imperative because interaction with the opponents caravans cannot work without them.

[1] Merchants who play Caravan will use one quarter of their currency as starting bid. Spending caps with them increases the amount they hold and the amount they bet, and vice versa. Merchants may also pay out in any alternate currencies they have in their inventory, including any you had already exchanged with them.

[2] Certain merchants have a limit on the total number of times they will play Caravan against the player. This limit is absolute and does not "reset" at any point during the game.

Merchants (if anted properly) can place as much as 81.5% of their available currency on a particular hand of Caravan. This can be done by buying out their inventory, or just an expensive item, until they have a large cap amount, then matching and raising their bet to win it all back. This can be repeated 5 times per merchant.

Easiest way to win is to find as many 6's, 8's, 10's, and King's as possible. Then build a deck with just 6's, 8's, 10's, and King's (or as much as you can. Keep the deck to 30 cards) Play combinations of 10-6 and 10-8 into piles. Play King on the 10 in a 10-6 or on the 8 in a 10-8. Just discard if you don't have what you need.

Both Klamath Bob and Melissa were at one point intended to be Caravan players. The dialogue options which would allow this have been completely removed in both cases, but their Caravan decks remain in the game's resources. Additionally, Poindexter appears to have been intended to be a Caravan player. In this case the dialog option remains, but the associated dialog script, caravan deck, and necessary faction assignment are not present.

pcxbox360 Playing with any no-game-limit non-player character when they hold 59804 caps will result in the player winning up to 52029 caps. Dale Barton will fall back to 59804. This action is repeatable. Also, the game may crash when the non-player character holds more than 65,537 ((2^16)+1) caps into his inventory.[verified]

pcps3xbox360 Though the rules state no discarding may occur during the initial round, it is nonetheless possible to do so anyway. If the player does so, their opponent does not get a turn and the player gets to go again. The non-player character will also use this bug to their advantage. This is likely due to the fact that if you started with (for example) all queens, you could not make a move and the game could not progress.[verified]

After the game ends:

xbox360 When it says to press any button to continue pressing start and then hitting start again will cause the game to become unresponsive, while party chat still works.[verified]

ps3 The button to continue will sometimes lag over. (Pressing (O) to exit will sometimes cause the Pip-Boy to open and pressing (X) will sometimes trigger dialogue with the opposing player).[verified]

pc It is not possible for the player to discard cards once their main deck is empty. The opponent will still be able to do so once their deck is gone.[verified]

xbox360 When putting a card onto any pile, the green validation card will show upside down[verified]

pc A bug may occur where the non-player character will not bid any caps even if the player wagers caps. If this happens, the player may lose his wager if they lose and won't win anything if they win.[verified]

xbox360 Some caravan card games may not load up a screen, but rather load up the options to choose cards. The screen will remain with the player looking at their opponent.[verified]

pcxbox360ps3 When drawing or discarding, some cards may change to a different card (ex. 7 to a 10) for the duration of the animation and then change back.[verified]

pc Once the game starts and the non-player character places their first card for their caravan, you're not able to select any cards to be placed in your caravans[verified]

pcps3 There is a possibility that you will not be awarded the trophy/achievement "Caravan Master" upon reaching the 30 wins required to get the trophy.[verified]